


The Great Wide Multiverse

by a_random_fan_of_many_things (orphan_account)



Category: Undertale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:22:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26080339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/a_random_fan_of_many_things
Summary: Ink hadn't been allowed to explore the wide multiverse for awhile due to some stupid rule about 'protecting himself and others' but come on, he could easily protect himself. Anyway aren't rules made for breaking?
Kudos: 10





	1. Ink's escape

OK so new AUs in the multiverse work like this. First you get your regular au, then someone does something, anything at all, and the multiverse will create a universe where literally anything else happens. Sometimes you meet the love of your life, others you just change the pacing of your steps. The majority of these universes are about different step pacing. Very little include love of your life moments, technically speaking this is the multiverse so any event has an infinite chance of happening so saying one has a higher likelihood than the other is meaningless, but despite this due to a reason none quite knows the name of, if there is an infinite chance of coming across the love of your life, the chance of changing your steps is infinity, plus one. Because of how utterly and unfathomably vast the multiverse is only a few AUs get properly monitored by good and bad forces alike, and these AUs are always the love of your life kind. Sometimes these AUs even become aware of their universal-y-ness and become part of the Official Multiverse, where dimension hopping is normal and accidentally falling in love with your other self is a little too common. The only time when a step pacing universe gets attention is when someone makes it not so step pacing and more apocalyptic, it has been done plenty of times now, after all of time is unending and everything has to happen at least an infinite number of times somewhere. But there was one person in the Multiverse, official or otherwise that could call themselves a true professional, nay an artist of au changing, and they were known as Ink. There intentions were always pure, as pure as a soulless au guardians could be, but pure intentions isn’t what you need when universe exploring. What you really needed was a level head and a calm temperament. These were distinctly un-Ink attributes and because of them, and a few unfortunate incidents he was no longer allowed to explore AU’s that were not a part of the Official Multiverse, most people might’ve sat down and excepted this, but Ink wasn’t most people so instead of just sitting back and exploring the vast official multiverse filled with wonder and art and science he planned to escape into the cold embrace of the unknown. 

*

Ink crept down the snow covered streets of New Snowdin, this au’s creatively titled town that was first built on the surface. No one was around which Ink was grateful for and yet he couldn’t help but be paranoid that someone was following him. He tried shrugging it off, as it was probably just because he hadn’t done this in a couple of months, but still, the thoughts lingered. Instead he decided to focus on where he was going, down two alleyways, climb a pipeline onto a roof, sprint across the roofs for two blocks, then climb down a balcony ladder and sprint for the surrounding forest. This path wasn’t designed to get to the forest quickly, but to confuse any witness’ as to avoid getting found out. He came to the pipeline and practically jumped the length of the wall. His footsteps made light thuds as he darted across the roofs, as he ran he felt the paranoia from earlier slipping away and his confidence growing. Once at the end of the sets of roofs he jumped and landed gracefully on the cold hard dirt below. He began to run through foliage of the outer forest, it was harder to see where he was going but he didn’t care, he was one minute away from being free. Ink stopped in a clearing that was filled with silver moonlight, the middle was a pixie ring and he felt a smile twitch at the edge of his mouth. Perfect. He outlined the portal around the pixie ring and started charging it up with magic, in better times he would have been able to open a portal before you could say ‘great galloping hordes of blood sucking vampires’ but a lack of practice led to a lack of efficiency so now he had to wait. Ink turned his head as he heard footsteps running towards him, with nothing better to hide the charging portal with, Ink just decided to sit on it. Just as he had it barely covered the porta; the source of the footsteps emerged into the clearing; It was his underswap counterpart, Blue. And he did not look happy.  
“Ink, what are you doing out here?” He asked.  
“Oh, y’know, just chilling.”  
“I know you better than that Ink.” Blue sighed.  
“If you really knew me then you’d know not to get involved by now.”  
“Oh I know, I just don’t care.” Blue stepped forward and started to try and drag Ink away. “Come on, Dream will get worried if I’m gone for too long.”  
“Then maybe you should leave” Ink suggested, leaning all his body weight back onto the almost ready portal.  
“No, you know I-” The ground made an almighty crack like rolling thunder as the portal tore itself open. So loud that it drowned out the screams of the two skeletons falling through.


	2. Into the Unknown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue got pulled through Inks portal and now he's trapped in one of the unknown Au's with no one to help him! Well hopefully it should be easy to find Ink... in a city housing 8 million people. Oh well at least Ink's gotten the freedom he wanted! Now he's free to do what ever he wants! Right? Not unless he somehow gets himself into trouble with the people of this Au, which won't, right?

Blue was falling very very fast and then with a resounding THUNK, he wasn’t. He had landed face first into a dumpster, well there are worse ways to break a fall, he thought. Next to him was a similarly shaped print but, it was empty. Blue silently cursed himself and got out of the dumpster, he then got out his phone, planning to call Dream to tell him exactly what had happened but instead he pulled out two halves of a phone. He sighed with annoyance and chucked the two phone halves in the dumpster. At the end of the alleyway a silhouette of a monster walked past and Blue felt himself relax. At least he wouldn’t need to hide himself from humans, which had been a problem a couple of times now. He left the alleyway and looked at his surroundings, when you had been star sans for as long as he had it became pretty easy to recognise the exact time and place of where you were without asking. Judging by the local architecture, dialect and technology this appeared to be some form of New York in the early 2010’s. Now all He needed to do was find Ink in a city that housed millions of people, which neither knew him or Ink. Well, no time like the present! Blue thought before setting off on his mission

*

Beneath Ink there was a crowd, slightly higher than the crowd was the stone statue of a lion he was standing on, and above him was a mural bigger than anything that New York had ever seen, and that was saying something! It felt absolutely brilliant to be free of all responsibility, to be in a world where nobody recognised him. Ink liked protecting the Aus and all but recently it had just become paperwork and diplomacy and politics rather than defending against actual threats. People for some reason had gotten the idea that the Official Multiverse should band together to form one solid empire under Dreams banner which was just typical. There was some reasoning behind it, something about protection from Nightmares army but Ink couldn’t see the point, just protect yourselves, it wasn’t like there had been any recent attacks. Anyway it wasn’t like death was unnatural or anything, people just acted like it. As long as the Nightmares gang didn’t harm any Aus Ink didn’t mind. Come to think of it, it was getting kind of quiet in the whole Au harm department as well, no one had seen Error in awhile. Ink supposed he should be worried, and a small part of him was, but he also knew that Error just liked to have time alone, even if it lasted a few months. Ink was putting the finishing touches on the mural when he heard a whistle from behind. Why does every Au insist on having cops? Ink whined in his mind as he jumped down from the stone lion and into the crowd. Ink easily ran ahead of the cops. He planned to duck into an alleyway to make a glorious escape but it was a dead end. He heard the footsteps of the cop gaining on him and he felt the pinpricks of worry start to form. No no no, I can't get arrested! Then I’d have to contact Dream, or someone and that would make everything worse than before! Ink took a deep breath as the footsteps got closer, It’s fine, I just need to put my head to this. Then as if on cue, Ink noticed an open window on a second floor apartment. With skillful ease Ink climbed up and through the window before the cop had a chance to see him. Ink lay on the room's floor for a few minutes to make sure the cop was gone before brushing himself off and looking at his surroundings. It was a small, white bathroom that was very well kept. Multiple bottles of bleach and anti-mold were stacked on one side as well as bundles of toilet roll and several first aid kits. Well someones ready for the apocalypse Ink thought. Carefully he opened the bathroom door to a slightly bigger living space which was empty of all life except for a grey tabby cat that lay across the top of the sofa, there was only one other door which was the gateway to an immaculately well kept bed room. Ink relaxed a little knowing the apartment owner wasn’t home. Ink sat down on the sofa next to the cat, which according to its collar was called ‘Muffin’, and reviewed his situation. He knew he’d need to be back with Dream by the end of the week, as to better ensure his chance of not being found by a search team which would be very humiliating, and would probably heighten his punishment. He'd need to meet up with Blue before then too, to ensure Dream wasn’t too mad. But that wasn't important right now. Right now Ink felt only hunger, in fairness it had been a day since he'd last eaten anything at all. And very slowly it dawned on him that if the bathroom was fully stocked then the kitchen would be too. 

*

Blue dragged himself through a midday market under the beating sun. He was feeling the painful effects of heat stroke and fatigue. He collapsed beside a stack of boxes that had been left to the side to take a moment to gather his strength. He was hungry to, but that was the least of his problems right now. Suddenly there was a scream from the other side of the market square.   
“Stop, thief!” a woman called. The crowd parted to make way for a speeding shadow. Despite his body's complaints, Blue raised to the occasion with a bone attack ready in hand. He raced after the shadow and quickly gained ground but was caught off guard when the shadow darted into an alleyway, taking a few steps backwards Blue looked down the alleyway which was completely empty, save for a few wooden crates. Blue dismissed the bone attack and cautiously crept into the alleyway.   
“Um hi? Sorry for startling you, and chasing you, that must have been really scary… But you can come out now, you can trust me on this!” Blue called out to no one. He walked until he reached the crates, he turned and looked inside one and saw what was little more than a boy crouching inside the box with a defiant look on their face. They thrusted the small beaded purse at Blue.  
“O-oh, thanks.” Blue said slowly. The clack of high heels approached from around the corner, it was the purses owner.  
“I have half a mind to call the police right now!” She said angrily, snatching the purse out of Blue’s hand. The boy had a frightened face but didn't make a sound.  
“Oh, that won’t be necessary, Miss! I’m a part of law enforcement.” Blue lied with a forced grin. The woman looked at Blue disbelievingly for a moment before shoving her purse in her bag and walking off. It was a few moments before the boy in the crate got out. He pulled a notepad and a pen from his hoodie pocket and wrote out an I.O.U slip and handed it to Blue. He started walking away but stopped when Blue called out.  
“Hey wait!” The boy turned and cocked his head.  
“Can I use this now? Nothing much, just to get some food?” Blue asked awkwardly. The boy grinned revealing a stolen twenty dollar note he’d stuffed in his mouth for safety.

*

Ink was smacked awake with his own paintbrush. He opened his bleary eyes and looked up at the furious woman glaring down at him.  
“Who the hell are you?” she asked.  
“Am Ink, you?” He said with difficulty.  
“It doesn’t matter to you! What did you do to my apartment?” she asked. Ink sat up on the sofa and stared around at the apartment. The place, to put it simply, was a dump. The ground was littered with scraps of food and their packaging. The walls had been drawn and the furniture and been haphazardly thrown out of the way. The hazy memories started coming back to him now, this apartment wasn’t like this when he first arrived, he was responsible, fuck.  
“Well, ma’am, I’m sorry for trespassing, I’ll be on my way now if you’ll just-” Ink reached for the paintbrush but the woman held it tighter.   
“Oh no you don’t, you are going to fix all of this before you can even think about leaving!” She said firmly. Ink let a whine escape from his throat before crouching and starting to clean up the litter.


	3. Alliances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue makes a strong bond with his new friend called Jake and Ink tries to spend some time with his friend Brittany

The boy thief, apparently named Jake, had taken Blue to one of the cheapest cafes that they knew and watched as Blue ate a meal that was so greasy it practically shone in the cafes dim lights.  
"Wow, you're really hungry… for a skeleton." Jake said.  
"Sorry, I haven't eaten all day." Blue apologised.   
"Fair enough." Blue relaxed into his chair and felt himself start to regain his energy.   
"So, why'd you help me out?" Jake asked.   
"I don’t know, there’s something about me that makes me act like that, it just seemed the right thing to do in the moment. I don’t think you stole out of spite or unnecessary greed. Then again not a lot of people do."   
Jake nonchalantly shrugged but Blue could see him relax.   
“So who are you exactly, if you were a member of law enforcement like you claimed you were I would’ve been carted away, no questions asked.”   
“I-” Blue bit his tongue before he could say anything incriminating and played it off as nervousness. “I’m what you’d call a bit of a vigilante.” He said. Jake nodded and leant forward on the table.  
“So how’d you end up here?” he asked.  
“Well, I was chasing after a- a- a colleague who has run away and I need to get him back.”  
“Wow, you must be close then.”Jake said. Blue tilted his head to one side.  
“How so?”   
“Well normally it isn’t someone from work who goes out to find colleagues isn’t that like a family and friends job to do that?” Blue shifted awkwardly in his seat, he hadn’t really thought of Ink as a friend for a while now. Thankfully Jake interrupted the silence  
“So how do you know he’s in the city?”  
“Oh, I have a pretty good hunch.” Blue said   
“That’s it? You can’t call him or anything?”   
“No but how hard could it be to find him, this city isn’t that big, is it?”   
“It’s pretty big with lots of good hiding spaces, it could easily take you weeks and months to find him!”  
“Really? I hoped,” Blue had to bite his tongue again, “I- I hadn’t planned for that.” Blue managed to stutter out.  
The street lamps turned themselves on in unison now as the sun just slipped under the horizon.  
“Hey it’s ok, this might be kind of weird but you look down on your luck. If you want to you can crash on my couch tonight, I mean-” But Jake was cut short by Blues hug of gratitude. 

*

Ink had finally cleaned the entirety of the living room, and some parts of the kitchen and the bathroom. Despite the clean look of the apartment before Ink arrived it turned out to actually have some serious issues that Ink decided to fix, in his own way. Now there was only one thing left to do, convince the lady that was holding his paintbrush hostage to give it back so he could move along to his next escapade. He opened the door to her bedroom where she studied furiously, sticky notes, journals and gel pens littered the bed. She was so focused on her study that at first she didn’t even notice that Ink was in her room at all. Ink lightly coughed and she looked up, took off her headphones and got off the bed.   
“Oh, you’re done are you?” She asked. Ink nodded, she walked into the living room and to Inks relief made a satisfied noise.  
“Oh, thanks, you’ve done a good job.” She said awkwardly,.   
“So can I have my paintbrush back?” Ink asked.  
“Oh, yes!” She said, hurrying back into her room. Ink followed and saw her retrieve the paintbrush from the back of a closet. She handed it back to him with a slightly guilty bow.  
“Here.” Ink took the paintbrush with gratitude and made for the exit.  
“Wait!” she called out. Ink stopped still as he placed a hand on the door knob.  
“Don’t go, I mean you can if you want but…” She moved her hand through the air haphazardly while looking for the right words to string together.  
“But what?” Ink prompted.  
“The streets aren’t exactly safe.” She finally said.   
“Thanks but I don’t exactly have that much choice in the matter.”   
“You don’t have anywhere to stay?” She asked, a bit shocked.  
“People with homes don’t break into downtown apartments and eat a week's worth of food.” He said simply.  
“Oh.” The both stood in silence for a moment, Ink waiting patiently for her response. She had a face with the muscle movements of an ocean, Ink could almost pinpoint exactly what was going on inside her head. Turmoil, disagreement, reasoning, one counterpoint, empathy and finally--  
“You can stay the night.” she said.  
“Really? After everything I’ve done?” Ink said incredulously.  
“Yeah, whatever. You’re clearly on a low so I guess?” Ink jumped in triumph.   
“Brilliant, I haven't done something like this in ages. Oh my stars, we have to get popcorn and have a total movie binge!” She rolled her eyes dismissively.  
“No no no, this isn’t some sleep over, I need to get to study.”   
“Oh come on! Live a little, what was your name again?”   
“I didn’t say before.”  
“Well tell me now, I’m criminal who’s going to murder you in your sleep.”  
“I still think you’re a criminal, but not a murderer. It’s Brittany.”  
“Well, Brittany, I think you should ditch the books for tonight and hang out. It’s hardly going to be fun if you’re studying all night.” Brittany sighed tiredly and rubbed her temples.  
“This isn’t supposed to be fun, it’s just making sure you don’t get killed. And I can’t ‘ditch the books’” She said with air quotes, “I have a test tomorrow.” Ink whined as Brittany pulled some blankets out of a cubby hole and dumped them on top of Ink.   
“Now get some sleep and don’t bother me while I’m studying.” Brittany then turned out the light and retreated to her bedroom. Ink huffed and buried under the blankets in the soft darkness, slightly annoyed but also in a way, happy, in a way that he hadn’t felt for a while. 

*  
Blue panicked for a moment when he woke up in a place that he didn’t recognise until he remembered what had happened. Jake had taken Blue back to his place, a cheap apartment in the cheapest part of town and had let him crash on the couch. A little more relieved Blue swaddled himself under his thin blanket and listened to the rain pour down outside. It produced a sense of calm in him, almost like being transported back in time. Not to his exact childhood but when things were a whole lot simpler, back when it was just meeting the bad guys at X time and Y place and then fighting for justice. Now things were difficult, complicated, political. He swaddled himself further into his blanket and sighed. Maybe Ink did have the right idea about- wait no, that’s wrong, Ink is never- OH MY STARS INK. Blue jumped out of his burrito blanket and shook himself vigorously to wake himself up, he then started to pace around the room. Oh how could he have forgotten the entire reason why he was here? He needed to find Ink asap. Geez he’d slept in until almost 5:15? How could this happen? Ok ok, so find Ink, that much obvious. First I should probably get the help of some other people. Ink will try and hide from me but he can’t hide from everyone! Hmm, perhaps some of Jake's friends? Blue paced harder, as his plan came together. It took him until 5:45 to have the majority of it fleshed out. Now all he had to do was act on step 1: Wake up Jake and get him to help out. Blue walked into the room at the end of the apartment which was only separated to the rest of the apartment by some hanging curtains at the door frame. He turned the light on and called Jake to  
“Wake up!” in the most optimistic voice he could muster. Jake made a few incoherent sounds as he stirred,   
“What time is it?” he croaked  
“Nearly six AM! Look I know you’ve already done so much for me but I really need your help with-” Jake held up his hand and rubbed his eyes before taking and saying.  
“Yeah, yeah, I know. You want to find your friend.”  
“He’s not my-” Blue faltered. Yes he is! He’s totally your friend! Right? I mean he’s helped you hundreds of times how can you say he’s not your friend? I mean he has been reckless lately, and rude, and breaking all the rules that blue specifically put in place but-   
“Are you ok?” Jake asked.  
“Y-yeah, I’m fine just, just.” Blue felt frustrated tears welling at the back of his sockets, Oh my -, am I going to cry? Why, why now? This is hardly professional! Just get back on track, the sooner I get Jake to agree to help the better. Blue took a deep breath and wiped the tears away but passed it as rubbing away sleep.  
“I’m fine.” He said with a firmer voice, Jake didn’t look like he believed it but was deciding to let it slide.   
“I’m sorry.” Jake said awkwardly.   
“It’s fine.” Blue said ]. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.   
“Ok.” Jake said, hauling himself off of his futon.   
“Ok? Ok to what?” Blue asked.  
“Let’s find whoever it is you need to find.”  
“How did you-”  
“Know you were going to ask? It was pretty obvious. We can head out right now, I just need to get ready first ok?”

*

Ink sunlight was streaming through the living room when he woke up on the couch. It must have been about mid-morning when he woke up as once again he found the apartment completely empty, except for the cat which was greatly enjoying basking in the sunlight. Ink cleaned himself up in the bathroom, being careful not to mess anything up because if he had to clean like that again… he shuddered. But it did get him to stay the night and it was nice to get attention from someone who couldn’t guess his next move like how everyone he knew could. So maybe he should make a small mess of things? Just to stay one more night with a proper roof over his head. Would that be the right way to go about it? He shook his head, he didn’t want to go through that ordeal again and he didn’t want to become predictable to her so maybe he should try something else… Just then he looked at the calendar on the wall, this month's picture was of a university. He flipped it to look at the other months and they were all of the same university, Oh! This is the university that Brittany goes to! A plan started to form in Inks mind, and it would certainly take her by surprise. Ink cut the university’s address out of the back of the calendar and opened the apartment's window. He then boarded his paintbrush as a witch boards a broom and soared off into the sky. 

*  
Salt water ricocheted off of the side of the concrete dock, distorting Blues reflection. Jake had taken him to this shipyard as Jake had said it was probably one of the best places to hide in all of the city, it also happened to be where Jake was doing a small job that consisted of moving crates on and off ships. It turned out that Jake did a lot of small jobs around the city to make rent, not just theft. Blue looked up from the water and into the distance, three loading bays down he could see Jake slamming the doors to a truck that he’d just filled with mail. Seeing him so far away made Blue feel more lonely than ever, he didn’t belong here, not really. He thought about getting Ink and taking him back to Dream at the palace. It felt weird to say that now, Blue lived in a palace. It had been given to the star sanses when the Official Multiverse started really backing behind the whole empire idea, but it was obvious that it was really just for Dream if you saw all the sun and apple motifs. It kind of confused Blue, the way the empire acted, they never agreed on one thing but the fact that they should remain as a empire and that star sanses should rule over them, well Dream should rule over them. They never seemed fussed about Blue or Ink, unless they had somehow messed up and then accusations of treachery were thrown left right and center. It was especially with Ink, who people trusted less and less with each scandal, whether fighting with civilians over technicalities or his meetings with Error who was technically an enemy of the state. Blue sighed, it simply wasn’t in Inks nature to stay out of scandal. Wait a second, Ink wouldn’t be hiding by the docks, he would have already made at least a few global headlines! Blue felt a new rush of adrenaline as he ran down the docks to Jake who was finishing his shift.   
“Oh. My. Stars. I just realised that we’ve got this all wrong! Ink wouldn’t lie low, he’s probably painted half of this city red already!” Blue explained  
“Paint the city red? Your colleague isn’t Banksy is he?” Jake asked jokingly  
“He’s used that pseudonym a couple of times.” Blue sighed.  
“Well some papers have mentioned a mural that was graffitied onto a wall by an unknown artist.” Jake offered  
“How big?”   
“The entire wall is covered.”  
“The theme?”  
“I think it was just an abstract colour peice.”  
“How many people did it inconvenience?”   
“They painted over windows, doors and the paint has started to clog the guttering.”  
“That’s definitely Ink. Do you know where the mural is?”  
“Yeah, it’s not far from here, I used to be tutored by one of the nearby tennants. She’s cool, so you can ask her some questions about it.” Blues pupils became stars of excitement, something that hadn’t happened in a long time.   
“That would be brilliant Jake!” Blue said excitedly. “Could we go now?”  
“Yeah, I’m sure Brittany would love to meet you!”  
*

Ink hovered over the university on his paintbrush, idly doing loops around the old universities turrets. Without any better way to source Brittany he landed outside the main entrance and walked into the foyer, an octopus that was wearing a bowtie sat behind the desk.  
“May I help you?” The octopus asked Ink telepathically with unblinking eyes. Ink nodded  
“I’m looking for a friend of mine that goes here. Her name is Brittany.” The octopus judgmentally stared at Ink for a few seconds.   
“We do not simply give out that kind of information about our students.”  
“Oh come on.” Ink whined. “It can’t be that hard to find out!”  
“Besides the fact that giving you that information could be vitally dangerous for the student and reckless for my career I should like to point out that at least ten different students have that name.”   
Ink huffed and left the foyer, Ok so that was a non-starter, but there has to be another way to get to Brittany though, maybe if I can get him away from the desk I could use his computer to get Brittanys time table. Ink smirked as a basic but effective plan came to his mind, he’d actually used the trick a couple times before with the star-- Ink shook his head to dismiss the emerging memories from his head and jumped into the plan. Ink walked back into the foyer and made a giant ink puddle of paint on the floor, the octopus lifted itself up of the chair and started telepathically threatening Ink, but he wasn’t listening. Ink had taken off down the opposing hallway, dragging a thick line of ink with him. The octopus gave chase after Ink down the hallway until they came to the wall. With one almighty flick of the paintbrush paint splattered up the end wall, Ink went right through and emerged through the first puddle at the beginning of the foyer, it was a bit disorienting but at least Inks plan had worked. The octopus was still at the other end of the hallway unsure of what just happened and Ink was right in front of the computer. It turned out the octopus had been lying, there was only one Brittany at this school and right now she was working in the library. 

*

Jake and Blue were getting close to Brittany’s apartment just as the sun was edging towards the horizon.  
“So when did Brittany tutor you?” Blue asked, trying to make light conversation.  
“Oh it was half a year ago, I was studying social politics, she’s studying law and our subjects overlapped a bit so we helped each other out.” Jake said simply.   
“Wait ‘was’, why did you quit?”  
“Oh, many things contributed. I wasn’t popular on campus and I wasn’t a star student either but when it really came down to it I didn’t have enough money. I couldn’t manage two jobs and my school work without breaking down once a week and I couldn’t ask my family for money, they already tried so hard to get me in the university in the first place.”   
“Oh, I’m so sorry Jake.”  
“It’s fine, my family won’t get mad when they find out.”  
“‘Find out?’ They don’t know?”   
“Uh, no. But I think they might’ve figured. I’ve stopped sending them emails about my progress through my courses, but they haven’t asked about it either so I’m not sure what to think.”  
For a moment they both walked in silence as the sun continued to dip down. Blue’s mind put itself to work. Despite the problems and dilemmas the new empire had caused Blue had to admit that it was a lot easier to deal with these things with the extra money that the empire had provided. Universities in this AU couldn’t be that expensive could they? And it wasn’t like Blue was just giving it away to nobody, Jake had helped to restore order and aided Blue in his hour of need.   
“Hey Blue, this is it. Now we just sit and wait for Brittany to come back from her classes.”

*

Walking home through streets that had been washed with the golden glow of the setting sun was Brittany and Ink who was still riding his broom half a meter above the ground to be at Brittany’s head hight.   
“I still can’t believe you burst into the library like that.” Brittany reflected.  
“What can I say? I wanted to see you.”   
“Well maybe you should’ve waited for me to come back.” She snapped. “Sorry, I just…” She waved her hand around vaguely. “Todays been bad… I think I flunked my test and to be honest I was planning on making up for it on my shift at the library but then you came in and flew into a shelf of books and-.”  
“It wasn’t that bad.”  
“The shelves domino'd Ink! Now I’m not allowed to work there for a month.”  
“But you had nothing to do with it?”  
“Well technically I did! You came in there calling my name and everything.” Ink blushed a tiny bit. Brittany’s phone buzzed, it was an email and it read.

“ SSMNYU@BCU.com  
subject: destruction of the foyer  
-  
-  
Dear MS JONES.  
It has come to our attention that a monster in association with you has trashed our universities main foyer. Please report to the foyer with your associate at 5:00 AM tomorrow to restore the foyer or else be fined $1,000  
-  
-  
\-- MNYU Secretarial Staff.--”

A bullet of nausea hit Brittany square in the face and she kneeled over to puke in the gutter. It took a few minutes for the vomiting to stop and for her to regain her senses. Once she had she became aware of Ink's hand on her back, it might’ve been comforting if Ink hadn’t caused all of these problems in the first place.   
“Um, there there?” He said awkwardly.  
“Get your hand off of my back.” She said. He promptly removed his hand as Brittany got to her feet.  
“What happened?”   
“Doesn’t matter.” She started power walking away from him. But he quickly caught up on his paintbrush.   
“Come on, let me see what your phone said.” Ink asked.  
“That really isn’t any of your business, Ink.” Ink flew in front of her and blocked her path.  
“Brittany come on, nine times out of ten I can fix the mess I’ve caused.” He held out his hand for her phone and despite her better judgement she handed it over.   
“Oooh, that. I can easily clean that up.”   
“Really?”  
“Yeah! You saw how well I cleaned up your apartment, right? This isn't much different.”   
“O-oh yeah.” Brittany said, her anger dissipating. They walked back to the apartment in more comfortable silence now as the sun started to fully submerge itself under the horizon and turned the sky a pretty crimson red. But when they arrived they saw figures sitting outside the apartment's entrance. Brittany immediately recognised one of them and Ink instinctively recognised the other. He grabbed her shoulder and looked her in the eyes.  
“Is there a back entrance to your apartment?” He asked quickly.   
“No, there isn’t. Oh god, let me guess you’ve already messed with Jake.” She said accusingly.   
“Well actu-”  
“OH MY %$#@ STARS INK, GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!'' The figure that had been next to Jake leapt up and started throwing bone attacks at Ink who promptly gained height and speed on his paintbrush. The figure, another skeleton monster as it turned out ran over in an effortless chase after Ink, with Jake catching up with him quickly.   
“Hey Brit.” Jake said while the other skeleton yelled at Inks general direction.   
“Hey Jake. Is this your friend?”  
“Yeah his name is Blue.” Blue stopped shouting and then became aware of Brittany’s existence.   
“Oh I’m sorry miss, that was quite rude of me. Hello, I’m Blue and I’m guessing you’ve already met Ink? I hope he hasn’t caused you any trouble.”  
“You have no idea Blue, come into my apartment and I’ll tell you everything.”


End file.
